Small businesses have always had it rough, mostly because it takes a lot of time, resources, and effort to build a successful one. As a small business grows, investors come into the mix and the influx of cash can rapidly propel the business into the next stage. However, some small businesses decide that they don’t want to grow. Instead, they want to maintain the status quo. Herein lies the decision to move into the Success Stage of small business.

What is the Success Stage?

The third stage in the five stages of small business growth is called the Success stage. When your business is at this stage, you’ve accomplished huge goals and stabilized cash flow. You’re less involved in the daily operations and take a more strategic role. You’ll begin to make solid plans for the future of your business, your role moving forward, and you’ll make the decision to either use your business as a means of support or as a base for further growth.

Going All-In on Success

If you decide to maintain the status quo, your goal is to get the right people in place so that you can free your time up for your next adventure or phase of life. The first steps revolve around hiring the right people for the right positions. A team of forward thinking managers will put the right financial, marketing and production systems in place. The staff hired for these positions are usually a controller and a production scheduler or operations manager.

The planning of operational budgets will support a functional delegation and overall, everybody involved in the business, including the owner and the manager, should focus on devising a strategy for the purpose of maintaining the current situation. That doesn’t mean that you don’t keep up with technology and improve efficiencies. It just means that you’re not putting much effort into research and development.

If on the other hand you’ve chosen to expand, you’ll play a significant role, but mostly on the planning and new product launch side. While the team of managers are focusing on the strategies that will maintain the day-to-day operations and keep the business profitable, you’ll be off with another team working on the next phase. You can use the cash and borrowing power of your successful business to invest in new product lines.

Moving into the Take Off Stage

As you go beyond the Success stage of small business growth, you’ll need to generate enough revenue to handle that growth. In the next article, I’ll help you navigate the Take Off stage of small business growth. If you’re anxious to get started today, contact me here.

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